HVAC-Talk site will be slow for the next few days. It's normal site/server maintenance. Thx -Dad

Welcome to HVAC-Talk.com, a non-DIY site and the ultimate Source for HVAC Information & Knowledge Sharing for the industry professional! Here you can join over 150,000 HVAC Professionals & enthusiasts from around the world discussing all things related to HVAC/R. You are currently viewing as a NON-REGISTERED guest which gives you limited access to view discussions

To gain full access to our forums you must register; for a free account. As a registered Guest you will be able to:

Participate in over 40 different forums and search/browse from nearly 3 million posts.

Nobody knows the trouble... OK, maybe somebody here?

Hi -

First, thank you for hosting/supporting such a forum - even if I could do a decent job at googleing, I don't think I'd come up with this much info.

That said. two WTF's? I saw just today.

As I am looking for a 'fixer' house, you can guess most of the stuff. Until today, the most creative thing taken by the previous owner was the brick facade from one wreck. Refers, ranges, dishwashers, the occasional water heater - normal.

How about a missing heat pump? Of course the lines were not capped (30 year old house). I assume the entire system can be written off, and the best I could do would be to remove the rest, and save the HVAC tech the trouble - correct?

Second:
What was this rig? Largest box read Teledyne LAARS - a rectangular box, slightly smaller than an under-counter fridge, with the notation "Dual Temperature Control" above two dials I assumed to be rheostats. From this was a 1 1/2" pipe going to a stainless steel (NSF, no less) tank (think largish fire extinguisher) (empty), and from it to a serious-looking centrifugal pump, then into a 2" PVC heading underground toward the back of the house, Also present, a 2" PVC coming to from the ground up to a
small plastic tank fitted with a loose cap. My google indicates pool heater, but, unless the deck was hiding something, there was no pool, and no concrete deck for/from a pool. There was a separate unit which I'm guessing was a stand-alone A/C unit - much smaller than any heat pump I've seen.
Could this be hot water heat, and, if so, why the 2" PVC running parallel to the house, instead of a line directly into it (presumably in copper?)?

While I'm here, two misc. items:
1. Aside from being appalled that HVAC compressors are wet designs (oil in the lines for lubrication), the idea of casting copper lines in a slab is shoddy (IMHO) - does anybody bother installing conduits for these so that:
1. the copper doesn't get etched/eeaten by the concrete.
2. replacing lines becomes MUCH simpler?.

One last Q, also re lines. In the discussion as to replace/clean/how, one poster noted that the left-over lines from one job was often enough to replace another aet "assuming they were properly capped". Ummm...
WHAT is them that requires them to be capped?

They may have been planning on a pool at one time. Hard to guess from here.
Copper lines are to be protected from concrete. They are not suppose to be direct buried. They should be ran in a conduit of some type.
Still not something that makes it easy to replace them, as you end up with a bend/ell when you come out of the ground.
Refrigeration copper is cleaned and dehydrated from the factory.
Don't want dirt or moisture getting it to them.

They may have been planning on a pool at one time. Hard to guess from here.
Copper lines are to be protected from concrete. They are not suppose to be direct buried. They should be ran in a conduit of some type.
Still not something that makes it easy to replace them, as you end up with a bend/ell when you come out of the ground.
Refrigeration copper is cleaned and dehydrated from the factory.
Don't want dirt or moisture getting it to them.

I'll attest for that. 120 systems with the copper ran through the concrete slab through PVC that was not terminated correctly. Even if terminated correctly it was not the best choice. I got to talk to the guy that installed them as the project supervisor...24 years ago. He said that has got to be the dumbest idea he has heard of in a while.......he then went on to tell me that he himself has replaced at least about 40 line sets here. No way to verify that without me asking some very odd questions. However I have no reason not to believe him.....I myself saw one myself the first week I was here......I was green and guessing what was wrong....I won't post how much it cost but it was far from cheap.

P.S. I should mention I never said anything to him about the problems I was having.

Back to first Q: missing HP - is there any realistic chance of salvaging any component, or should I simply clean out the remaining pieces? Leave them for the techs ? Aside from that little item, it's an easy flip.